Yelich impressive in debut as Marlins down Rockies

Denver, CO – Christian Yelich had three hits and a pair of RBI in his major league debut to help lead the Miami Marlins to a 4-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

Adeiny Hechavarria went 2-for-5 with an RBI for the Marlins, who have won the first two tilts of this four-game set.

Jose Fernandez (6-5) picked up the win after pitching a strong seven innings where he only allowed two runs on five hits. The rookie right-hander was making his first start since pitching in the All-Star Game. He recorded eight strikeouts with two walks.

The Marlins plated three runs against Colorado starter Jhoulys Chacin (9-5), who lasted seven innings. He gave up eight hits while registering four strikeouts in the loss.

Todd Helton hit a solo home run, while DJ LeMahieu stroked a triple and scored a run for Colorado, which has lost four of its last seven games.

Helton homered with two outs in the second to get the Rockies on the board, but Hechavarria hit an infield single and stole second before being brought home by Yelich to tie the game in the top of the third.

The Marlins broke the tie in the fifth when Hechavarria doubled to right and scored Jeff Mathis from second base. Yelich then drove in Fernandez on a single to second base to put the Marlins up 3-1.

"You can think about it and dream about it all you want, but going out there and actually living it and being apart of something like this is pretty special and something I'll definitely never forget," said Yelich on his debut.

LeMahieu led off the sixth with a triple to right field and scored when Carlos Gonzalez grounded out to second.

Giancarlo Stanton added to the Marlins' lead in the eighth when he hit a solo shot to left for his 11th home run of the season.

Colorado threatened in the bottom of the ninth when Gonzalez was on third with two outs, but Helton popped out to end their comeback hopes.

"Probably a bit of a funk right now. Like I said, it's a talented offensive club and I feel like we will get rolling, but we've got to get out there and do it," said Rockies manager Walt Weiss on his offense.

Steve Cishek picked up his 19th save of the season after pitching a hitless ninth.

Game Notes

Miami called up two top outfield prospects, Yelich and Jake Marisnick, from Jacksonville on Tuesday ... Colorado went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position ... Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki struck out three times.